Category: Housing Policy

Just days after a new plan for subsidized housing in Israel was approved, Minister of Construction and Housing, Jacob Litzman has resigned, leaving behind a confused housing market. The reason: a protest against a closure decided by the government as part of the fight against Coronavirus. Analysts say that the resignation will not influence the...

The Green Building Standard has existed in Israel for 15 years but, until now, it has been non-compulsory. In 2013, several wealthy cities in central Israel began obligating building contractors to adopt green standards and regulations. Last week, the Interior Minister signed the official standard, and within a year and a half green building in...

Vast construction of huge office towers in central Israel over the past few years has resulted in excess supply in areas that, currently, no one needs. The government is initiating a move to convert large-scale office space into residential real estate in Israel; however, the plan has received widespread criticism by local municipalities. While Buyitinisrael...

Considering the high cost of housing in Israel and the difficulty for many people – mostly young couples – to buy a home, Israel’s Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, together with the Ministry of Construction & Housing, introduced the “Mechir Lemishtaken” (Buyer’s Price) scheme in 2016, to generate affordable housing and to slow down the escalation...

In what the Government has called “strategic inventory management of the housing crisis”, more than one thousand housing units will be constructed on land that is currently occupied by defense and military industry bases in the center of the country. The training, intelligence and communications bases will be vacated and relocated to the South of Israel. The huge compounds are located in the heart of the high-demand areas in Israel, where land is most expensive and property values highest. The compounds will be evacuated by 2022.

In light of the high cost of housing in Israel and the near impossibility for many people – mostly young couples – to buy their own homes, Israel’s Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, together with the Ministry of Construction & Housing, has introduced a new formula for the affordable housing program “Mechir Lemishtaken” (Buyer’s Price). Within...

Israel is located on a seismically-active fault line known as the Syrian African Rift and the possibility of earthquakes of high magnitudes pose a threat to millions of people and their property – in the region. To experts in the field, it is not a question of will there be an earthquake, but rather when...

Urban renewal in Israel generates new, creative construction in preexisting built-up areas. The scarcity of land for new construction in Israel and the subsequent housing shortage throughout the country led the Government fourteen years ago to develop this innovative solution. There are two main schemes for urban renewal projects. The first is known as pinui-binui (evacuation and construction) and the...